Masvingo college in clean-up exercise

By Hazvinei Mwanaka

Herentials College recently conducted a clean-up campaign in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Masvingo to educate and raise awareness on the importance of maintaining clean environments.

The clean up, which was conducted under the theme: Our environment is important to us, saw more than 50 students, its employees, Council and Environmental Managment Agency (EMA) officials, on a clean-up campaign in the town.

Speaking on the sidelines of the exercise, Kumbirai Mangoi, the Principal of Herentials College Masvingo, said there is need to create awareness on the importance of taking care of the environment.

“Masvingo is our home therefore we want to keep Masvingo clean. We are complementing the Council and Environmental Management Agency efforts because we want zero litter. We should preserve our environment because our environment is our future.

“Usually as we approach the rainy season there are a lot of challenges including water borne diseases from the collective waste dumped on the streets and drains are also blocked. So we have decided to do this clean-up campaign before the rains start,” said Mangoi.

He said they co-opted students because they want to catch them young.

“When they do it … voluntarily we know they become more aware. It will become a lifestyle and they become cleanliness ambassadors in the community,” added Mangoi

Julikias Mavhenyengwa, the cleaning supervisor with Masvingo City Council, said the school held the clean-up campaign to bring sanity to the town.

“They are doing this so that the community can be informed. We applaud this initiative. We hope the community will take some lessons home from what has been done today,” he said.

Nicole Sibanda, a Lower Six student with Herentials, said they will pass the message to other youths which will go a long way in protecting their environment.

“Nobody wants to live in a dirty place and a clean place begins with us so we just hope our communities will copy what we have done today,” she said.